Thursday, August 30, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
Before I moved to Israel in September 1980, I had been hearing rumors of someone in Israel working on reading the Torah and finding that there was a hidden code in it. What would that code reveal?

Then I discovered in the next few years that an Israeli mathematician, Dr. Eliyahu Rips, had discovered a hidden code in the over 3,000 year old Torah (Bible) that revealed details of events that took place many years after it was written.

Dr. Rips is no normal mathematician. He's one of the world's leading experts in group theory, a field of mathematics that underlies quantum physics. Famous mathematicians at Harvard, Yale and Hebrew University have confirmed his theory. It's only since we are in the age of computers has this been able to take place. Then someone came along and found codes in a novel, proving something similar could happen with any book. Suddenly people weren't buying his findings nor thinking this was a unique situation.

Michael Drosnin, author, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Rabin about his findings. He had found out that his name, Yitzhak Rabin was in a code that had been discovered. The word, "assassin" was also among the code words. On November 4, 1995, Rabin was assassinated. Rabin hadn't taken him seriously.

Michael has since written 3 books on the subject. One interesting aspect is that something from the codes found indicates something important happening around December 21, 2012 and could be saying that we're on the cusp of the end of life as we know it. This is also interesting as the Mayan Calendar also is saying that something like a change of the calendar cycle is in the works and could be nothing except that we're in a new cycle. At any event, there is to be a lineup of planets that might cause something, maybe at the least something that interferes with cell phones.

Dr. Rips is predicting once more, something he usually doesn't do.and explains it in the video. Mitt Romney is to win the election this year. If this takes place, I think more people will be interested in Rip's mathematics.

I have included video material that has come out and is new to me. There are several of them to watch and the others are listed on the right side. I notice that on the jacket of the 3rd book, the code shows Obama as president which happened in 2008. He found the code telling it would happen. The code work has not been able to prophesies events happening, only finds what has happened, except for Rabin. Nobody took the warning seriously, unfortunately. In Judaism, we're not supposed to do things like that, anyway. At any rate, I find it fascinating. The video was uploaded on YouTube in February 2012.

Nadene Goldfoot
How would you feel about your children returning to school this fall with the sounds of sirens and explosions that are not coming from a TV set but from their own neighborhood? They'll have to try to continue classes in bomb shelters during their school day. Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador, wrote a letter about this to the Security Council President, Gerard Araud. This is what children in southern Israel again are facing.

Instead, the UN submits biased reports against Israel. The only thing that matters to the UN that they consider a problem is Israel with restrictions on imports to Gaza. We all know that Hamas terrorists, who are in control of Gaza, would import more mortars, missiles and rockets or things that manufacture them if allowed. That's why they build tunnels, to sneak them in. Life would be even worse for Israel if allowed to happen.

The report went on to complain about restrictions of exports and the movement of people by the usual ways; land, air and sea. Gee, Israel has had to impose a blockade for security reasons because Hamas, who refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, wants to cause its death. How nasty of Israel to blockade them. Have they ever realized that if it were not for this "war" effort of Hamas, Israel wouldn't have to take such steps?

The UN document doesn't mention Hamas's takeover of Gaza by any means and is shelling southern Israel, which contains civilians; mothers, fathers, and children. That's who they attack, not another army. Israeli Arabs can get hit as well in southern Israel. It's been going on since 2001. For 11 years the UN remains uncaring in a group that was created to tackle just such problems.

So the UN does nothing against the violence that Israel is suffering from and instead finds things to complain about that benefits the terrorism of Hamas.

Thus, Israel has to continue to take defensive action to suppress the terrorists. Don't blame Israel, blame Hamas and their ilk. The situation is as ridiculous to me as seeing sanity in "Alice's Wonderland."

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
Back in 2011 I wrote about the lost tribe of Manassah, or the Bnei Menashe, who have been practicing Jews for the past 3,000 years. They also had been one of the exiled tribes by the Assyrian Empire in 723 BCE, along with the others. For some reason or other, they wound up in NE India, which might by why they have managed to keep practicing Judaism this long. They were found on the border of Burma.

Many have immigrated to Israel already. They are to be commended. This group has prayed 3 times a day to be returned to Zion. Manasseh had been one of two sons of Joseph. The other son was Ephraim. Joseph and his brother Benjamin had been the children of Rachel, the major love of Jacob.

Literature on the Lost Tribes of Israel is spotty at best. Originally, Israel was a Jewish state, but a piece broke off, calling themselves Judah. The tribes of Israel were attacked by Assyrians in 723 BCE and the kingdom was destroyed. The tribes were of the House of David, 1000-960 BCE whose family continued to rule in the southern kingdom of Judah. Recorded history differs from legend. Historians cannot find a record of this happening in other sources, but it is in the Jewish Tanakh, or "Old Testament." There are descriptions of deportation of people from Reuben, Gad, Manasseh in Gilead, Ephraim and Naphtali. It shows that only a part of these tribes were deported and the places where they were deported to are known locations given in the accounts. The communities are mentioned as still existing at the time of when "Kings and Chronicles" were written and didn't completely disappear by assimilation into the Assyrian communities, although part certainly probably did.

One correlating fact is that the story told takes the lost tribes to Medes, which was a place in Persia before Persia even became a state, and today is called Iran. Our Jewish ancestors were also taken to Persia. Benjamin of Tudela took a dangerous trip in to Persia and the Arab peninsula 1165 and found Jews saying they were descendants of the Lost Tribes. He wrote about it in his "Book of Travels."

Writers on this subject are coming from their religious tradition and speculations as well as what is seen in practice. A complete answer may never be found. That's why I think that DNA testing will help. It may not be a complete answer, but it will make a fuzzy picture more complete. There are many different tests coming up now. One is to find the haplogroups of the Ydna (male line going back thousands of years) as well as the MTdna (female line which won't tell us a whole lot.) Then there are tests such as 23&Me and FamilyTreeDNA can give that look at the 23 chromosomes and can tell if you are related to a stranger by looking at the segments on the chromosomes. This is the autosomal test that checks on the SNP's. Another test is autosomal and checks on the STR's. By tomorrow there can be others that might answer our questions.

One fact is that probably any people that might be descended from a lost tribe will be a Muslim today just because the land they are most likely living in has become Muslim. Finding people in India that still maintained their Jewish connection is like a miracle after 3,000 years.

What convinces me about the Pathans of Afghanistan which now includes 15 million people is that culturally, though they are devout Muslims, they circumcise their males at 8 days like Jews do instead of at age 13 which is the Muslim custom. They follow dietary laws which must be checked further as Muslims follow a few Jewish ones such as not to eat pork. Their naming process also follows the Lost Tribal names.

Ethiopians have finally convinced Israel's rabbis that they have Jewish roots. 65,000 have moved to Israel, and started in 1974. They say they are either from the tribe of Dan, or are descendants of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba of Ethiopia, who had come for a visit to Jerusalem. DNA did not turn up any evidence of a Jewish connection, but they have been practicing Judaism up to a point in our ancient history.

DNA did turn up the a southern African tribe called the Lemba who tested and were found to have the Ydna haplogroup of the Cohanim, from Aaron and Moses, which would be J1. Moses was of the tribe of Levi. What a surprise! They seem to be more Middle Eastern in practices than African yet speak Bantu and are black. It's thought they may have come from Yemen. They had been keeping kosher when discovered. This doesn't connect them to one of the lost 10 tribes unless you figure a lost tribe had wandered into Yemen after 723 BCE. Also, couldn't our Jewish salesmen of long ago, working the silk route and other places have gone into Africa? They would have been carriers of the J1 haplogroup. They could have even settled down, took wives from the populace, and taught their religion to the others, which must be had had happened at some time in history. .

Author Tudor Parfitt's" life work has been tracking down the lost tribes of Israel in Africa and Asia. He's from London. He came to the Lemba who claimed to be of Israelite origin. Their story is that they had left Israel and settled in Senna. The tribe in 1987 was made of 40,000 -70,000people. They looked African, didn't intermarry with other tribes or eat with other groups, circumcised their boys, had ritual slaughter of animals using a special knife, didn't eat pigs or other forbidden animals, still sacrificed animals on high places, and followed many laws from Moses. The new moon was important, as in Judaism. Clan names were from a Semitic language, either Hebrew or Arabic, which can be similar.
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Resource: http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2011/06/manassah-one-of-10-lost-tribes-found.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Lost_Tribes
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/losttribes.html
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/israel1.html
Book: The Lost Ark of the Covenant by Tudor Parfitt- about Lemba Tribe of south Africa, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemba_people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medes

Nadene Goldfoot
You know how when a new neighbor moves in next door, you usually go over with a plate of cookies in order to get to know them and also to invite them over to your house?

Avigdor Lieberman, Foreign Minister in Israel, invited the new President of Egypt over for a visit, especially after hearing a few good things about him. Mohammed Morsi had commented that the Peace Treaty with Israel was secure. That was a relief. Morsi was going to visit Iran soon

First of all, the Tuesday invitation was quickly declined on Wednesday. "There is no possibility for Morsi to visit the Zionist entity!" stated a senior official from Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party of the Muslim Brotherhood. Even the Muslim Brotherhood's lawyer got in the discussion and also threw in the comment that, "Well, Iran is a sovereign state and our relations with it do not affect our neighbors." How stupid does he think Israel is? That's the biggest crock I've ever heard.

Heshmat, evidently the senior official, thought the comparison of Iran and Israel was off base. "There is a huge difference between the two cases," he said. " Iran does not plunder land and is not an occupying force." He forgot to throw in the fact that Iran is a fellow Muslim country with the same goals that they have, of course and constantly abuses Israel with rhetoric, calling it dirty names and threatening it's life.

However, Lieberman, who I'm sure was aware that the answer would be "NO WAY", did the right thing. He extended the hand of friendship. The neighbor is just not as broadminded as Sadat had been nor as polite as Mubarak was. They've got some neighbor next door this time!

The only good thing possibly to happen is that Ouda Tarabin, Israeli, who has been held in Egypt for the last 12 years on espionage charges, will be released soon. Negotiations are happening. Why? He has no value to Egypt anymore, said Al-Masry al-Youm in quoting Egyptian intelligence. Whatever did they do to this poor person? Ouda, born in 1981, is an Israeli Bedouin. In 2000 at age 19 he went over into Egypt to visit his sister in El-Arish. He evidently made an illegal crossing, which was something that Bedouins had been doing. Israel also occasionally arrested Egyptian crossers, who are returned to the border after a short interrogation. He was unlucky, and was tried in absentia by the Egyptian military court, but never indicted. He had been sentenced to 15 years, and that his father had been sentenced in absentia to 25 years for the same thing. Ouda's Egyptian cousin, Eid Suleiman was also arrested for this same offense in 1999 and is still in prison. Ouda had done nothing wrong but cross over without his documentation. He's been in a jail in Cairo since 2008.

Another such case was Azzam Azzam, who had this same cell. He was also an Israeli citizen who was sent to Egypt to train local textile workers. He was held for 8 years on an espionage charge which Israel said was unfounded. Egypt has never presented any credible evidence. Egypt has been a dangerous country to make friends with.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Nadene GoldfootAbiel, b 12th century BCE was the son of Zeror of the tribe of Benjamin. He was the father of Kish and also the father of King Saul and of Ner, father of Abner. He was also called Jehiel. He lived in Gibeon and his wife was Maachah.

Afghana , born around 1,000 BCE, was the grandson of King Saul (Talut) of the 11th century BCE. . His father was Saul’s son Irmia (Jeremiah). King Saul’s father was Kish of the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin’s father was Jacob and his mother was Rachel, Jacob’s first love. The prophet Samuel had selected Saul to be king. At the time there was a military threat from the Philistines and Ammonites. Saul organized a trained army at once and defeated the enemy in battles. The lineage about Afghana is according to Pashtun records. I have not found him in Jewish records nor the son “Irmia (Jeremiah). Here we have King Saul referred to in Pashto as Talut.

However, once the tribes had been exiled and removed out of the country, children would have been born and the tribes of Judah and Benjamin would have been cut off from learning about them. There is also a difference in languages spoken. For instance, we refer to Hadassah as Queen Esther. King Ahashueros of Persia that is written in Esther’s book was known there by another name. There must be a “strong imprint of this occurrence in the cultural memory. Something must have happened to give rise to the story.” “It’s kernel might represent something that happened in reality.” So much of our Jewish genealogy is written in our Torah. It even lists the genealogy of Esau’s family. from Abraham and down to the descendants.

Following the tribe of Benjamin from Jewish records were 11 sons. Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard. This is listed in the Tanakh, the Stone Edition.

According to Jewish records, Saul’s sons were Jonathan and Ishbosheth, Abinadab, Milchishua and a daughter, Merab. He had 12 children though usually 3 were spoken about. Eshbaal was another son of Saul who Abner sided with and crowned king at Mahanaim It was when the Philistines launched a united attack that Saul was only able to fight defensively and fell with his 3 sons including Jonathan in the battle on Mt. Gilboa. Ishbosheth survived and became his successor over part of the country.

They had a terrific victory at Michmash which stopped the Philistine danger. Then they went after the Moabites, Ammonites and Arameans. He purified Judaism by eliminating witchcraft. Somehow, he made Samuel the prophet angry and Samuel appointed David as the successor. David had been Saul’s armor-bearer and was a friend of his son, Jonathan. He became the husband of Saul’s daughter, Michal. Saul became very jealous of David, so David went to live with Achish, king of Gath. He then returned to Israel after Saul and 3 of his sons had been defeated and killed at the battle of Mt. Gilboa. He settled in Hebron and declared himself king of Judah.

Not only the Pathans, but also the Afghan Royal family has a very well-known tradition placing its origin as coming from the tribe of Benjamin. This was first found in a book called Mahsan-I-Afghani first published in 1635. According to this tradition, King Saul had a son called Jeremiah who had a son called Afghana. Jeremiah died at about the time of King Saul’s death and Afghana was raised by King David and remained in the royal court during King Solomon’s reign. So the Afghan Royal Family says they came from Benjamin's tribe of the southern kingdom of Judah.

Another important person whose ancestor was the tribe of Benjamin was Mordechai, son of Jair, the uncle of Queen Esther (Hadassah) of Persia.

The Tribes of Joseph

The tribes of Joseph are the tribes of his 2 sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. They are also considered to be part of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. They call themselves Bani-Israel, meaning “children of Israel.” Their tradition is that they were carried away from their ancient homeland. Formerly they were shepherds in search of pasture but they gave up their nomadic life and settled into village communities.

Jacob had really wanted to marry Rachel, but Leah was older and he had to marry her first and then work for 7 more years to be able to marry Rachel. Leah had 6 sons, the first 6 listed. She also had Dinah. Zilpah, the hand maid of Leah, became his concubine and gave Jacob Gad and Asher. Rachel gave Jacob Joseph and Benjamin. She died in childbirth with Benjamin. Her handmaid, Bilhah, gave Jacob two sons, Dan and Naphtali.and remained his concubine. Son Reuben got into trouble by fooling around with Bilhah.

Moses gave the priestly office to the tribe of Levi. Moses and his brother Aaron were from this tribe. Moses gave the job of priest to Aaron. He divided the tribe of Joseph into the tribes of Ephraim (Joseph's younger son with Asenath) and Manasseh (first son of Joseph and Asenath). Asenath was the daughter of Pot-phera, priest of On, wife of Joseph, and mother of Ephraim and Manasseh. The name is Egyptian. Levi was not to receive any land because their job was to be the teachers who traveled around. Moses wanted to keep the division of land amongst 12 tribes receiving territory and 12 was a sacred number.

Moses died at age 120 and was not allowed into the promised land and when this happened, Joshua became the leader. Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh received land in what became in our generations “Transjordan.” Naphtali and Asher were on the Sidonian frontier in the Galilee. Issachar and Zebulun were placed in the Valley of Jezreel area. Ephraim and the other half of Manasseh were placed in the mountains of Samaria with Benjamin to their south and Judah further south. Dan was along the seacoast around Jaffa and Simeon was put in the Negev.

It wasn’t all that easy. The Danites were expelled from their inheritance by the Amorites and so moved on to the sources of the Jordan River. Other tribes also didn’t succeed in occupying the entire areas assigned to them. Simeon’s men seized further land in Seir and the territory of the Amalekites.

The tribal divisions were maintained under the judges but King Solomon 961 -920 BCE, son of King David and Bathsheba, adopted a different administrative division of the country. After he died, the country split into 2 with the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and most of Benjamin making up the southern kingdom of Judah. They had broken off from Israel. Benjamin had occupied territory between Ephraim and Judah which included Jerusalem. At one time they were almost exterminated in a war with the other tribes. King Saul, the 1st king of Israel, was a Benjamite. The land between Israel and Judah after the division of the kingdom was partitioned between the two eventually.

When the Assyrian kings invaded, Tiglath-Pileser III in 732 BCE and Sargon in 721 BCE , the northern tribes were exiled, chiefly to Assyria, Media (in what was later to be called Persia) and the lands neighboring Aram-Naharaim. (This is the biblical name for the NE area of Mesopotamia. It is the land of origin of the patriarchs, and nearly all the names of the ancestors of Abraham, such as Serug, Nahor, and Terah, correspond to place-names in this region.) So, in reality, some were sent back to their original homeland.

A large section of the population of the southern kingdom of Judah was exiled by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon in 586.BCE.. Nebuchadneszsar II (604-561 BCE) inherited the Assyrian Empire and after his conquest of Judah (597 and 586) had exiled many Jews to Babylon.

The Ten Tribes had been exiled previously and constituted a large Jewish population. Many remained in Babylon even after Cyrus permitted a return to their land of Israel. Towns such as Nehardea, Nisibis and Mahoza had an all Jewish population. In the 1st century BCE a Jewish state was set up around Nehardea by 2 brothers, Anilai (Anilaos) and Asinai (Asinaios), and this lasted for some years. The Jews of Babylon remained in constant touch with the Jews of Israel and even supplied some of their leaders like Hillel.

Nadene Goldfoot
Abbas has previously declared that “Palestinian” history is 9,000 years old
and said last year, on the eve of Israel’s Independence Day, "Netanyahu, you are
incidental in history. We are the people of history. We are the owners of
history,” PMW stated. Abbas needs to look at Jewish history as well.

Going back 5,000 years ago takes us to Egypt where farming was first introduced. Pharoahs were ruling then. Egypt's Predynastic Period goes back to 5,000 BCE to-3100 BCE. I have to go back further to accomodate Abbas's claim. I guess I do have to go back to the Neolithic Age, which is the late Stone age. "Neolithic (late Stone Age) communities in northeastern Africa exchanged
hunting for agriculture and made early advances that paved the way for the later
development of Egyptian arts and crafts, technology, politics and religion
(including a great reverence for the dead and possibly a belief in life after
death)." It goes back to 10,200 BCE, so that would cover Abbas's "Palestinian History." However, we can include Jews in this group, too.

Abbas's known history may have started as part of some indigent people in one of the empires of the day after Mohammed was born in 570 CE and died in 633. That's only about 1,379 years ago. .Islamic historians called the history of pre-Islamic Arabia "The Period of Ignorance." Even the famous historian Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) said the bedouin dwellers of this vast wilderness were illiterates who did not care for craft industries and who were destructive to civilization.

Jewish history in Syria started back in biblical times. By 70 CE when Jerusalem fell to the Romans, 10,000 Jews were living in Damascus. They lived as dhminnis, or 3rd class citizens under the thumb of the Muslims after Islam was upon the earth. This is also true of Jews living in Lebanon. They were there at the same period or even earlier than that. Jews were living in Libya before the destruction of Jerusalem. Many came from the "Egyptian diaspora." Josephus Flavius wrote, "100,000 Jews were transferred from Judah" by Egyptian ruler Ptolemy in about 300 BCE and thousands were settled in Libyan cities used as a human shield to protect Egypt from its enemies. The Jewish community was destroyed in an anti-Roman rebellion in 73CE. It was in the 7th century CE with the new Islam when Arabs took over all of North Africa and put Libyan Jews under dhimma restrictions as elsewhere. Again, Jews were used as buffers against the Byzantines.

Abbas hasn't studied genetics or history. Let's go way back, since he is trying to do that. 100,000 years ago homo sapiens (people like today) left Africa and headed towards Lebanon and traveled along the Mediterranean Coast. These new people went through a mini ice age that lasted for 1,000 years, decreasing the population to 5,000 people. Some may have been on the road to becoming Jews and some to become Arabs.

Getting closer to the time Abbas declared that Palestinian history started, geneticists have found in men (Ydna)haplogroup that J, J2 and J1 arose 10,000 to 15,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. It includes Jews, Arabs, Armenians and Kurds. The highest frequencies have been found in Iran and Iraq, and we know that the story of Abraham originated in Ur, which is now a city in Iraq. This haplogroup presented itself in traders going into Europe, central Asia, India and Pakistan. J2 is connected with the spread of agriculture during the neolithic Period from Anatolia and is found in central Asia, the Mediterranean and south into India. "While the majority of haplogroup J is not Jewish, the majority of Jewish men fall into J. The Cohen Modal Haplotype is found in haplogroup J1. In other words, Moses and his brother Aaron, who was the first Cohen, may have been the fathers of the Cohen gene.

This doesn't make Palestinian history starting 9,000 years ago. It places Jews and Arabs back in the area.
After all, Arabs are said to be the cousins of Jews. DNA is showing this to be true.

"Palestinians" is a political and national name. Both Jews and Arabs were called "Palestinians who lived in the land called Palestine. There has never been a state of Palestine. The neighboring Arabs came in looking for work from all over the Middle East to "Palestine" as it was called before 1948 by the British and others from the time of 70 CE when the Romans named Judah "Palestine" after the fall of Jerusalem. The best documented facts about this is from Joan Peters in her book, From Time Immemorial. She was a journalist and went to the original sources held by the British, for one thing, to see where these people came from. When the first Jewish aliyah started in 1880, it appears that there were no jobs around in Arab lands at all, and many were eager to work for the Jews from then on. Actually, the land called Palestine was quite empty of people, except the few Jews that remained. Mark Twain documented this fact in his book Innocents Abroad when he toured the lands. He didn't say anything flattering about the Bedouins or any other person he saw, either.

Abbas, have you been dna tested for your haplogroup? That will tell you with more accuracy what your family origins were and how far back your roots are. We know you covet the land, now that the Jews have returned and have made something of it.

Lots of different types of peoples covered the Middle East. There were the Sabaeans, Nabataeans, the Byzantines and the Sasanids. How about the Abbasid Empire that connected their Quraysh Tribe to Muhammad. They ruled from the 10th to 12th centuries. But then that's almost the present. Maybe Abbas can enlighten us as to the history of the Palestinians of 9,000 years ago in this late Stone Age?

Jews know that their first king of Israel was King Saul of the 11th century BCE. He was the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin. Enemies of the day were the Philistines and the Ammonites. He was selected by the prophet, Samuel. We go back a long ways. Abbas, you can't keep trying to erase our history. It's there for keeps.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
Last year in August a group of Republicans and Democrats from the states were invited by an AIPAC group to tour Israel and learn about it first hand. 81 House members were given a week's visit. They went to Tiberias and in what looks like a religious frenzy, many waded into Lake Tiberias, or as they call it, the Sea of Galilee.

The Representative from Kansas, Kevin Yoder, must have enjoyed the experience a little too much and stripped naked to jump in. This isn't even done by the Sabras of Israel. He's hearing about it now as the whole affair is being broadcast on TV, which is just something more to kick the Republicans with. Each party is trying to throw dirt on the other as voting is getting close to the coming November. Nothing about it made the paper last year. Only AIPAC was rapped for giving so many a free trip.

What the TV reporters seem to ignore is the fact that the Kinneret, as we also call it, is 693.29 feet below sea level. As I remember, Tiberias was very very very hot. The group may have explained their actions being due to their religious feelings, but I think they just needed to cool off before they thought they'd die.

From 1980 to the end of 1985, I lived in Haifa and then Safed, and Safed lies above Tiberias on top of a mountain. When I drove down, to see Tiberias, I shvitzed! That's what you're supposed to do if you're having a heat stroke, apply cold water anyplace on your body, and I think they all did it the quickest way.

Yoder just explained that he had never done that before and never will again . Well, Israel does affect us all, and a religious spirit can touch us when there.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
When a woman wants a baby and is not getting pregnant, it is wise for both the woman and her husband to be tested. Often times it is due to the husband's low sperm count. Riding bicycles can cause this problem. Present day causes have found that heat, such as coming in hot tubs can be a culprit. Also, laptop computers actually held on the lap, clothing, drugs, alcohol and tobacco can also cause low sperm counts.

Sperm count in Israel has fallen in the last ten years, a scientific situation discovered through sperm banks. Where ten years ago only 1 in 10 made the cut, today it is 1 in 100. In a tiny country of people that lost 6 million lives to the Shoah (Holocaust), having babies is most important. Besides that, Arabs are having no problem, and we already have a political situation of a fight over the land and need our population to continue producing.

What is happening to the men? The causes have been looked into and carrying cell phones in front pockets was considered. Even some wondered if there was uranium from exploded munitions causing this. Israeli scientists are looking into naturally occurring hormones like estrogen in the water and milk.

Israelis live under so much pressure. Even Golda Meier was a habitual smoker. Many probably still do smoke. This is a good reason to have a serious campaign to stop smoking. Israelis have not had a high alcohol or drug problem, so other causes have also been checked into.

Israel happens to be a world leader in milk production. They pump twice as much milk from their cows as other parts of the world because they milk cows up to their 8th month of pregnancy. Like humans, cows also carry their calves for 9 months. This is when natural estrogen levels in milk soar. In the wild, cows stop giving milk to their calves when they are 3 months pregnant. Here in the USA we see hormones added to animal feed to increase growth which has affected both milk and meat. This has driven many people to buy organic products.

No one in the world makes as good milk products as Israel does. Their yogurt is out of this world, beating all brands sold in the USA in my estimation. One tends to live on milk products in Israel. I had to return to the states in 1985 but hated to be missing all the unique types of yogurts.

I noticed that in doing genealogy, families 100 years ago and more would have lots of children. A woman could have 12 children during her lifetime, and it seemed like she would have one every 2 years quite regularly. I found out that while a woman is nursing, she would not get pregnant. When she stopped, and the age of 2 years is a good time for a baby to stop, she would then get pregnant.

A declining sperm quality is also an international problem, but Israel's rate is happening twice as much as in other developed countries, said leading Infertility researcher at Hadassah Hebrew U. Medical Center, Dr. Ronit Haimov-Kochman. The birth rate has risen, however in recent years but due to the ultra-orthodox Jews who have larger families.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
On Thursday, the 16th of August will be the 35th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. I just found out that he had a Jewish maternal connection through direct descent from his great great grandmother who was Jewish, Martha Tacket who was born in 1852 and died in 1887 in Mississippi. Martha was married to A. White Mansell, b: 1849 d: 1925.

Actually, the Jewish connection started with Nancy J. Burdine b: 1825 in Tennessee who had married Abner Tacket. She was one of his many wives. She would be Martha's mother, so would be Elvis's gggrandmother. Abner was born February 6, 1803 in Knox, Kentucky and died in 1889 in Fayette, Alabama at age 86. His parents were Lancaster Tacket and Elender Hampton, but I can't find the parents of Nancy to see where her parents came from. I feel it must have been Germany. It is said that Elvis was German, Scottish, French and Jewish. This Jewish connection would have been enough for the Nazis in Germany to classify him as a Jew had he been there because by 1939 things were very bad for Jews, and they were in concentration camps in the 1940's.

According to Jewish law, one is Jewish if their mother was Jewish or if they converted. reform law recognizes a person to be Jewish if their father was Jewish. It's even possible that the family had a Reform connection if they came from Germany. Elvis certainly has a Jewish connection but was not practicing Judaism. He was a Christian. The family said not to mention their Jewish connection as Jews were not liked. However, he was proud of this. He even wanted to change his middle name's spelling to Aaron, which is more Jewish, but his family had spelled it Aron because he had had a twin brother named Garon and it matched.

After his mother, Gladys Love Smith died in 1958, Elvis designed his mother's grave site with a Star of David on the tombstone to honor his Jewish heritage. His mother was proud of it and told Elvis about it when he was young.

Later on, he discovered the teachings of Judaism as well as Zen Buddhism and occult teachings from his hairdresser, Larry Geller. He learned the Hebrew alphabet. During most of 1977 Elvis wore a "Chai" necklace, made of the letters of Chet which also is the number 8 and Yud which is also number 10, adding up to 18, a special number which also means "long life." Shelly Winters wore a chai in the movie about a ship sinking. Shelly was Jewish. It is sad that the year 1977 was the year when Elvis died. When Charlie Hodge asked Elvis why the chai was so important to him, he replied, "I don't want to miss out on goin' to heaven on a technicality."

It should be noted that Elvis even had a Cherokee connection in that William Mansell b: 1795, grandfather of A White Mansell, was married to Morning Dove White who died in 1835. William is buried in Hamilton, Marion County, Alabama. I imagine that Morning Dove is also.

Whoever knew that Elvis Presley had a Jewish connection? I'm glad he was interested in his heritage enough to do a little investigating , though his hairdresser wasn't the best resource, and to wear a chai. He was proud of his family line and very attached to his mother. He was one of a kind.

Update: By Jewish law, he is considered Jewish. I just checked with an orthodox Rabbi.

Resource: book: Elvis and Gladys by Elaine Dundy. Glady Love was the 5th daughter of Doll (Octavia Mansell) and Robert, and Elvis's mother.
ancestry.com genealogy and history stories
www.elvispresleynews.com/images/ElvisFamilyTree.jpg.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
Netanyhu is frustrated by the fact that Iran is continuing to grind out whatever is necessary to make nuclear power that can be used against Israel, and that Iran is not being checked by the USA or world efforts so far. This is his major headache amid a whole bushel basketful of things that would drive me crazy.

Israel is a very democratic country. Amos Oz, renowned left-winger novelist, signed along with others a legal ultimatum to Netanyahu demanding that he tell publicly that he will not attack Iran's manufacturing centers of nuclear power without first receiving the cabinet's approval . I don't even remember seeing that happen in our vast land of the USA when Bush attacked Iraq during the 9/11 attack. He had the power to decide that. Obama has gone ahead and done things without the cabinet's approval as well.

These signers are also greatly concerned about what will happen to them if Israel attacks. They noted that their law does allow a limited military action without the approval of the full cabinet, but are arguing that this wouldn't fit that category. Netanyhu is given until Thursday or face legal action.

Ben Dror Yemini of Maariv newspaper in Israel compared the letter to the Oxford Pledge, a resolution written from the Oxford Union in England in 1933 saying that this House wouldn't fight for its King and Country, which encouraged Mussolini and Hitler. Yemini is afraid that this will just encourage the ayatollahs in Iran.

One thing this shows is that Israel is not made up of a bunch of people with just one mind. Governing Israel is like governing a state of governors. Everyone has opinions and they usually are all different. Netanyahu most likely knows he has to be very careful of his decisions. He has a lot of chutzpadik people attending to his every decision. It's bound to keep this democratic society in check. Israelis are not bashful people.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
I've been watching the History channel with their "Gates of Hell" program and know that we Jews do not believe in such a place. We have several opinions about the Hereafter and what happens to us when we die.

We have books such as the Bible or Old Testament, as Christians refer to it, which we call the Tanach, which includes the Torah, Prophets, writings of the 24 books of the Bible. Then we have the Talmud, which can be a set of 21 thick books 18 " tall or printed into one book. In this, the information about the hereafter speaks in metaphors and parables. Gehenna is the word for hell. This is where sinners roast for their misdeeds and is Gai Hinom, the Valley of Hinom, which is a small ravine in Jerusalem where idolaters used to burn their children in sacrifice to Moloch. I can see why Moses and then Joshua were told to enter Canaan and take the land. The Canaanites' end had come since they were sacrificing humans. Anyone can see "Gehenna" today from a balcony room in the King David Hotel which overlooks the old city of Jerusalem. This is where I met my 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot when I made aliyah to Israel, in the dining room of this very stately hotel.

We believe that good people of all faiths have a share in the world to come. We do not believe in everlasting damnation. One view is that one year is enough punishment. No Jewish teaching suggests punishment without end.

The world we live in is viewed as a hallway that leads to still another world. The belief in an afterlife, in a world to come (Olam Ha ba) where man is judged and where his soul continues to flourish is in Jewish thought. The belief is that all of Israel has a share in the world to come, and this is from the Mishna Sanhedrin 11:1, another The Mishna became the cornerstone book for the Gemara. The Mishna and Gemara together make up the Talmud. We read the Torah which is the teaching that tells man how to live. It tells about every aspect of human life and how we should act and do in our human and social behavior, which can be applied even to today's life.

Judaism's regard for the Olam Ha Ba does not really believe in a Hell. We had 2 thoughts about death.
1. There would be a resurrection of the dead When a man dies he is dead. His soul is dead until after the Messiaic Age when it will be reunited with his body which is to be raised from the grave.
2. The soul was immortal. The body dies but the soul lives on forever after the death of the body. Eventually the two combined and the story is that his soul lives on in Heaven until the time of resurrection when soul and body are reunited.
Orthodox Judaism still accepts the combined beliefs. There are prayers said for the soul of the departed and for the resurrection of the dead. Reformed Judaism does not believe in the resurrection of the dead and only believes in the immortality of the soul.

Maimonides, our great teacher and physician, also emphasized the spiritual bliss of the soul in the afterlife. He did go along with the resurrection but felt it will only be a temporal one. Eventually the resurrected will return to dust and the soul will remain immortal. It is pointed out that the Greeks believed in the immortality of the soul. Reformed Judaism's Platform states thus: "We reject, as ideas not rooted in Judaism, the beliefs both in bodily resurrection and in Gehinnom and Eden( Hell and Paradise) as abodes for everlasting punishment and reward."

Though nothing is said about a Hell, much is written about the goodness of where our soul will go. "Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the whole life of the world to come; yet better is one hour of blissfulness of spirit in the world to come than the whole life of this world." This life is a gift from God, but this world is also a world! You can say that Judaism is a this-worldly and an other-worldly religion. It's a paradox.

The Hereafter is spoken of as "day that is all Sabbath" and as the "Heavenly Academy" where the righteous are taught Torah by G-d himself. The Hereafter is spiritual bliss. G-d in His goodness wishes man to earn his spiritual bliss. He is placed on earth where he has a choice of good and evil. We choose good, hopefully and by doing so comes nearer to G-d. then he can enjoy G-d for all eternity and enjoy him by right, a right earned by pursuing the good in his life. Eternity is said to be outside time altogether. Eternity is a state, not a place. We could say that we become Heaven, not that we are going to Heaven.

The whole purpose of man's creation is to "earn his keep" in the Hereafter. Luzzatto said that true perfection lies only in communion with G-d. Only by "arduous" effort can we earn that good. Only through the performance of G-d's will which we learn about in mitzvot (good deeds such as visiting the sick) which are the precepts of the Torah, are we to achieve the true life and to rejoice in it.

We do not embalm. The blood of the deceased is part of himself which must also be buried and not discarded as waste. We do not have an open casket. We don't want to be on display and are more concerned with honor and respect for the deceased. We do not cremate."for dust you are and to dust you shall return. I hear that this is beginning to be allowed, though. Perhaps this is with Reformed. We bury as soon as possible, usually the very next day, but not on a Sabbath. Judaism goes along with autopsies when necessary with rules about it.

The Jewish tradition cherishes life. We don't dwell on what happens when we die. The Torah was given to Israel so that "you shall live" by the teachings and "not dies through them." The dead cannot praise the Lord, so death has no virtue. We are nevertheless realistic about death. "for dust you are and to dust shall you return, "but the spirit returns to G-d who gave it", "the end of man is death". We shall all die. We have the goal of growing up with a good name and departing with a good name.

"It is enough to know that there is no way at all for us in this world to know or comprehend the GREAT GOODNESS which the soul experiences in the world to come, for in this world we know only material pleasures and it is something we desire. We can't compare the good of the soul in the world to come with the physical goods of food and drink in this world. The GOOD is great beyond all our understanding and incomparable beyond all our imagination." I see that our religion accents the positive and underplays the negative aspects of the reward and punishment system. The idea is to keep on trying to be a good person. It couldn't hurt!

One last thought. We do have once a year Yom Kippur where we ask G-d to forgive us for our many sins. Our lives are weighed on a balance scale. Our good deeds hopefully outweigh the bad acts. This is why we are to ask forgiveness from our family and friends before Yom Kippur is over each year for whatever acts of ours might have hurt them. G-d will forgive transgressions against Himself, but will not forgive transgressions against our fellow man unless amends are made and forgiveness is first obtained from the wronged party.

I have a feeling that the GREAT GOOD we will meet will be a direct ratio to the good we did on earth. The idea is to do as many mitzvot as possible in your life. They reflect the will of G-d. What are they, you say? Kindness is a good broad term. Hillel, a great sage said "What is hateful to you, do not do to others." Rabbi Akiva said, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Be merciful, modest and perform deeds of kindness, said Rabbi Elazar ben Aroch. We have the major 10 Commandments and know that there are 613 of them altogether. It would help to know the first 10, at least.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
The Oregonian newspaper had a front page headline this morning "Human family tree has many branches." It went on to explain that in the past 40 years, scientists have suspected that our human family tree has not been happening in a straight line. Discoveries of 3 fossils show multiple lines of evolution in our own genus, Homo. there were at least 2 contemporary Homo species in addition to Homo erectus living in East Africca as early as 2 million years ago.

We are classified as Homo sapiens by the scientists. Our Judaism says that G-d created us. In fact, the world was created in 6 days less than 6,000 years ago. A question arises. Was Adam created with a navel? Abraham lived about 4,000 years ago. What gives? How do we handle evolution and our biblical Gensis history?

We do have orthodox rabbis who are excited about evolution and find no problem. Rabbi A.I. Kook (1865-1935) was an enthusiastic Orthodox evolutionist. He wrote Orot ha-Kodesh where he explained that the theory of evolution is in full accordance with the Kabbalah, which he believed in, in that it sees the whole of creation as striving to express itself in ever higher forms leading eventually to G-d.

I get this. When you think of a homo 2 million years ago, you realize, just from working with computers, that that life form had not been programmed with all that we have developed in our brain. Simple systems such as bodily functions may have formed, but certainly not the brain. I'd hate to meet a former 2 million year old grandma and hug her. She wouldn't be really recognizable to me in human form, I would think. I love Jean M. Auel's Cave man books such as "The Clan of the Cave Bear" with heroines like Ayla. Jean says that Ayla began at the dawn of man, but I'm sure she didn't go back 2 million years. She was like us; tall, blonde and slender a well as smart, smarter even than her mate. Her story took place from 35,000 to 25,000 years before our present day.

Even going back to Abraham's day shows evolution in the making. It dawns on Abraham that the idols his dad was manufacturing were not gods, and that there was but a single unseen god in the universe in charge of it. He had that Eureka moment when G-d spoke to him and told him to get out of town and go on his own or forever be violated by his environment. I bet those dendrites in his brain were pulsing and growing at that moment-evolution on the march.

Rabbi Kook's view of man's moral nature goes along with evolution as well. In his view man's nature has improved and evolved so that today the conflict is far less marked than in former times between ethical demands we see in the Torah and man's natural strivings and desires. He wrote before the Nazi regime, of course. I wonder what he would have thought of that.

A British rabbi, Dr. J.H. Hertz (1872-1946) also was an evolutionist. He said there is nothing inherently un-Jewish in the evolutionary view of the origin and growth of forms of existence from the simple to the complex, and from the lowest to the highest. . He said the Torah's purpose is not to serve as a textbook of astronomy, geology or anthropology but to proclaim highest religious truths respecting God, Man and the Universe. There is no conflict. Religion and Science must each recognize the true border of their dominion.

The Rabbi of Lubavitch in Brooklyn teaches the belief of the literal meaning of Genesis. He feels that fossils in the earth were there when he created the world. It was created bearing marks of gradual growth in a spontaneous creation. Rabbi Israel Lipschutz (1782-1860) wrote Tiferet Yisrael also relied on theories found among Kabbalists that there are cycles of creation in that the creation of our world descibed in Genesis was not the first creation but the beginning of a new cycle. The dinosaurs and skeletons of primitive men as were just found in East Africa are the remains of creatures which existed in a previous cycle.

"A Midrashic homily, Leviticus Rabbah 14:1) says that man was created after all the animals so that if he lives worthily man is the culmination of creation, but if he lives unworthily he is reminded that even the mosquito arrived on the scene before he did."

So, King David wrote the Psalms and in 8: 5-6 puts it wisely:

What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?And the son of man, that Thou thinkest of him?Yet Thou hast made him but little lower than the angels,And hast crowned him with glory and honor.
It shouldn't offend the religious mind to discover that G-d performs His wondrous works in one way rather than another. The man of faith is in no way prevented by new theories about how the physical universe operates from seeing the hand of the Maker in all His works. The Darwinian theory accounts in a natural way for the emergenece of diverse species, and some atheistic thinkers have seized on this as a colossal blow to the whole theistic idea of a designing Mind. Darwinism tells us how G-d worked, as it were, in His creative activity. It is G-d who is responsible for the process as a whole, the arrival as well as the survival of the fittest. This is the process to become more G-dlike.

Resource: The Oregonian newspaper, 8/9/12 front page, Human family tree has many branches
http://news.yahoo.com/fossils-hint-distant-cousins-ancestors-181723137.html
Book: What Does Judaism Say About...? by Louis Jacobs page 133 Evolution
Book: The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel, first in the Earth's children series, also The Mammoth Hunters, etc. http://www.wits.ac.za/newsroom/newsitems/201207/17085/news_item_17085.html culture in Africa 44,000 years ago.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
Every year President Ahmadinejad of Iran goes on a tirade against Israel around August 17th. This is their International Qods Day where he goes off hating Israel as he meets with the ambassadors and personnel of Islamic nations in Tehran at the end of their Ramadan holiday. Qods is the Arabic name for Jerusalem, and this is the day started by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 to show support with the Palestinians against Israel. Evidently they plan to take over not only Jerusalem but all of Israel, as well.

He gives Jews credit that we don't even realize. He said it's been 400 years that "a horrendous Zionist clan" has ruled. Now a political belief has become a clan in his mind. Whatever was happening to us in 1612? The Pilgrims hadn't even landed in Plymouth Rock yet. My paternal ancestors were either trying to live in Germany, Poland or Lithuania, probably in some little shtetl. We're people behind the scenes of the major powers. Not only that, but we're the decision makers. They really think we're something! I'm getting a big head! Considering that we're less than 1% of the human population in the world, we're mighty powerful to the Iranians! This must mean that each one of us is a power behind the throne. I wonder if he includes women in this deal?

The Zionists are the symbols of hegemony all over the world, he rants. Their Qods Day is just the solution for the Palestinian problem. Since they are the freedom lovers (note who rules their countries) and justice seekers (just look at Syria), they feel it is best to annihilate Israel to pave the path for real justice and freedom in the world.

What they note is how European politicians speak and never mention the Zionists. That is proof to Ahmadinejad that Israel is the axis of unity of the world powers.

I'm not sure what psychological problem Ahmadinejad is suffering from but I think he has some sort of persecution complex, and in this case, he just may be right. The younger set are beginning to realize that the Palestinians have nothing to do with them, but they most likely will still have crowds chanting, "Death to Israel." I can only hope that the sanctions the world has put on Iran is beginning to teach them that wanting the death of Israel is a bad idea and that there are other things in the world they could do with their time on this earth.

About Me

I'm the American Nadene Goldfoot. Another lives in England. I'm the one who went to Israel and lived there from 1980 to the end of 1985. I'm an amateur genealogist for our family who also has expanded interests into dna. I now spend my time writing in my 3 blogs teaching about Israel and defending her position.

On my tree I have found Rabbi Samson Wertheimer, RASHI, and King David through DNA testing. Another branch holds the kings and queens of England by genealogy. When current events become deplorable, I turn to this hobby for a lift. It's all whetted my appetite for ancient history of Israel.